Local Scout officials don’t expect much to change

Published 3:30 am, Tuesday, July 21, 2015

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Local Scout officials don’t expect much to change

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Last week, the Boy Scouts of America national leaders showed the organization’s intention to adapting to a modern social fabric. The BSA Executive Committee announced the approval of an amendment to end the organization’s blanket ban on gay scout leaders.

Local Scout officials accept the decision as long as individual troops are free to set their own policy.

Issues of sexual orientation among local chapters never really come up, according to Buffalo Trail Council Scout Executive David Chapman. Topics on sex and sexual orientation are “off-limits for scouting discussions,” Chapman said.

“We’ve always been an organization that’s not focused on and doesn’t include sex education in any of our programs. Sexual aspects of a person are not dealt with through Scouting. That's left up to the family or to the religious organization,” he said. “There’re many other factors that weigh in on how leaders are chosen, but they don’t have anything to do with sexual orientation.”

The BTC is comprised of 18 West Texas counties and serves more than 2,700 youths, and throughout the council’s districts, none of the applications for scout leaders inquire about sexual orientation, Chapman said.

Members of the BSA National Executive Board will meet Monday and are expected to ratify the removal of the ban. Locally, some sponsoring churches or organizations may allow gay leaders to enter their leadership ranks, depending on the sponsor’s doctrine, Chapman said.

Because sexual orientation of scouts or scout leaders was never considered, not much will change, he said.

“We don’t ask, and we never had,” he said. “We’ve never actually on any application said ‘are you gay?’ We’ve never asked people that.”

During the Boy Scouts’ annual national meeting in Atlanta in May, BSA President Robert Gates set the course for the upcoming decision.

“We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be. The status quo in our movement’s membership standards cannot be sustained,” Gates said in a national address. “Between internal challenges and potential legal conflicts, the BSA finds itself in an unsustainable position, a position that makes us vulnerable to the possibility the courts will simply order us at some point to change our membership policy.

“We must all understand that this probably will happen sooner rather than later,” he said.

Based on First Amendment protection of religious freedom, the BSA defends and dignifies the right of any religious chartered organization to choose its own adult leaders and set its own leadership standard.

“It’s really not Scouting that has changed, as it is our culture,” said Aaron Bedell, BTC’s director of development. “The culture of West Texas is conservative and has values that are aligned with Scouting, and so you shouldn’t expect much change. We’re still the same program as we always have been.”